SUMMARY
Maui, within Hawaii’s Central Pacific archipelago, faces recurrent wildfires triggered by the convergence of arid conditions, intense winds, and the proliferation of nonnative grasses, potentially exacerbated by hurricane-related influences.
On August 8th, the US National Weather Service issued alerts for high winds and dry conditions in the Hawaiian Islands. A brush fire was reported in Kula, approximately 35 miles (56 km) from Lahaina, rapidly spreading towards Lahaina fueled by strong winds associated with Hurricane Dora.
Skytek analysed the status of a property located at the address 127 LahainaLuna, Lahaina, Maui. The property was identified as LahinaLuna Hotel and is located in coordinates: 20°52’32.0″N 156°40’46.3″W
The property has been ingested in Skytek’s intelligence platform, to perform an analysis of its status using satellite imagery acquired before the fire damage and comparing the status of the same property using satellite imagery acquired post-event. This analysis provides information on any changes identified in the images, including a qualitative description of the observed damage.
The results and findings of this analysis are provided below.
OVERVIEW
The property located at 127 LahainaLuna, in Lahaina, Maui, is identified as the 12 rooms on two floors LahainaLuna hotel building.
A visual representation of the property of interest is provided in the map below Figure 1 where the property of interest is highlighted in red, as well as in the “street view” Figure 2.
PROPERTY ANALYSIS
In this section, we provide pre and post-event images of the property of interest.
A qualitative description of the damage is provided in the annotation as well as the analysis of the images, in the relevant section.
A high-resolution pre-event image was procured dated on February 02nd, 2023, and it is displayed in Figure 3.
A post-event satellite imagery acquisition at 30cm resolution was acquired for August 15th, 2023 in Figure 4.
Figure 3 – 127 LahainaLuna Street, Lahaina on February 02nd, 2023, Planet Labs
Figure 4 – 127 LahainaLuna Street, Lahaina on August 15th, 2023, Digital Globe
Comparing these two acquisitions, the following observations can be made about the property at 127 LahainaLuna Street:
- The overall surrounding area indicates an extensive level of destruction through burning or exposure to heat and smoke
- Trees and bushes initially surrounded the property, but the satellite imagery indicates that after August 08th, most of the trees and the vegetation surrounding 127 LahainaLuna Street were burned
- The property is observed built mainly with wooden elements, which are now burned, and collapsed to the ground
- The roof of the property appears burnt and collapsed
- The two floors hotel building at 127 LahainaLuna Street is observed entirely destroyed by fire
- The buildings in the immediate vicinity are burned down and destroyed by fire
- Satellite imagery indicates the roads are blocked with burnt cars and still not open for traffic as of August 11th, 2023
- The overall satellite imagery indicates that the electricity poles have been affected and the area is under electricity black-out, mobile phone communication may have been affected
- The LahainaLuna Hotel located at 127 LahainaLuna Street, Lahaina, is entirely destroyed by the August 2023 wildfires.
